This invention relates to a high speed collision reaction method for causing a chemical reaction between two kinds of substance by high speed collision.
To mix and react two or more reactive substances, there has been known a method which uses a batch-type reactor including an agitation chamber. In this method, two or more substances are supplied into the agitation chamber simultaneously or successively, and are reacted with each other by agitation in the agitation chamber. Also, there has been known a method which uses a reactor including an agitation flow passage, such as a static mixer. The agitation flow passage is provided with blades therein to cause turbulence. In this method, two or more substances are flowed in the agitation flow passage, and are reacted with each other by agitation in the agitation flow passage.
In the method using a batch-type reactor, two or more substances are supplied from different sources into a fixed volume agitation chamber simultaneously or successively, and are agitated for a specified time to cause a reaction between the substances. When the reaction is completed or reaches an equilibrium state, a product is removed. However, this method has the following problems. If a state change occurs in a reaction system, e.g., the viscosity of the reactive substance increases or the substances are not agitated uniformly, the reaction efficiency consequently decreases. Also, if an unmixable part is created and remains in a reaction system for a long time, the unmixable part aggregates into a considerable mass, thus making it difficult to produce a finely dispersed mixture.
Further, keeping the reaction system in the fixed chamber for a long time inevitably causes changes in the physical and chemical conditions. For example, the amount, concentration, and pH of reactive substances will vary over time. It is very difficult to maintain the reaction system at constant conditions. In the batch-type reaction method, in principle, the reaction is conducted per batch. To improve this drawback, there has been proposed a reactor system in which a plurality of agitation chambers are connected in series to perform a continuous reaction. In this case, however, the concentration of reactive substances changes as they travel from an initial chamber to a final chamber. Usually, the concentration decreases toward the final chamber. Accordingly, the reaction efficiency decreases toward the final chamber. Thus, it has been very difficult to attain the required reaction efficiency.
On the other hand, the method using the agitation flow passage also has the following problems. In this method, blades or other special elements are provided in the agitation flow passage to forcibly generate turbulence. A primary substance is flowed in a direction or circulated in the agitation flow passage while it is in a state of turbulence. A secondary substance is joined to the flow of the primary substance to cause a reaction between the substances. However, contact between the primary substance and the secondary substance inevitably occurs before the secondary substance enters the region of turbulence, consequently causing a heterogeneous reaction for a short time. Further, even if two or more substances come into contact at the same time to cause a homogeneous reaction, a high reaction efficiency cannot be attained.
There has been known another method which uses an ejector. In this method, a large flow of primary substance is produced. A secondary substance is ejected into the large flow of primary substance at a high speed to react with the primary substance. However, this method is not suitable when the substances have a high viscosity or when the reaction product has a high viscosity. Further, the control of substance mixing proportion is very difficult. Accordingly, this method cannot be applied in other than a limited field.